Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device.
Background Art
Semiconductor chips made of silicon (Si) are widely used in power semiconductor modules. In recent years, semiconductor chips made from semiconductor materials that have a large band gap have been used in such modules. An example of such a semiconductor material is silicon carbide (SiC).
Bonding wires have been used in wiring members that electrically connect electrodes on the front surface of silicon and silicon carbide semiconductor chips to various components, such as circuit boards in insulating substrates. In recent years, another kind of wiring member has been used instead of bonding wires. These wiring members are formed of a printed circuit board and a plurality of conductive posts, of which one end is connected to the printed circuit board (Patent Document 1).
Wiring members formed of printed circuit boards and conductive posts are very reliable, and power semiconductor modules that utilize such wiring members can be made thinner than modules that use bonding wires. Furthermore, in regards to electrodes on the front surface of semiconductor chips, conductive posts are able to connect to smaller electrodes than bonding wires can. Therefore, wiring members formed of a printed circuit board and conductive posts are well-suited for wiring members used for SiC semiconductor chips, which have smaller surface electrodes than Si semiconductor chips. In addition, since such wiring members are able to pass a large amount of current to the semiconductor chip due to the fact that a plurality of conductive posts are connected to one electrode on the front surface of the chip, such wiring members are well-suited for Si semiconductor chips.